Progress on my new novel

Hello again! Long time, no talk-to! I've been distracted and working diligently on the thriller I started immediately after finishing the sequel to my novel, Gulf of the Plains.

The thriller, titled Dolly Games, takes place in the fictional city of Port Morgan, in which the action in my novels, Eggs of Empire, Taken Apart and Questionable Interests, takes place. You may ask why I have chosen to make up a city as a scene for all these novels when there are so many others to use. That's a good question and I must say that it was a decision of convenience.

Sure, I can bring up from memory any number of physical features in quite a few cities and place action sequences in them, but if I committed an error in memory, people would lambast me for not knowing the city. I would rather not have an innocent mistake detract from the story. For this reason, I have created a city, complete with Interstate highways, low-rent districts, a country club with an attached marina, a shopping district and any number of businesses and restaurants in which my characters and move about. If there is something about the city that any readers find similar to their hometown, they can nod wisely and say, "I'll bet he used to live here to know the town so well!"

At present, the novel is about 90% complete, lacking only a few finishing touches to make certain that there are no errors in context and continuity. Oh, then there's that other thing. I approached a friend for help with a certain thing in the story that I knew nothing about and was told that my friend "would be honored" to help. When the job was only half finished, a job that would take no more than fifteen minutes if done all at once; my friend backed out without any explanation at all. This left me with the job of altering the story to make up for the lack which this caused me. It was vitally necessary because the job my friend was supposed to do would support a vital clue in the story. Leaving the story as it was would be meaningless and amateurish, and it required quite a bit of rewriting to salvage the clue. I am currently occupied with that and have simply taken a short break from it to post in the blog. For those who will not only read the blog, but will also read the book; tell me later if you can find the seam to which I have just alluded. I'm willing to bet that you can't.

The inspiration for the story? One line in an old song. I'll leave that for you, the reader to decide about after you've read the story.

Thank you,
Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies and The Empty Heart: A Collection.
Available on Kindle